Posts from ‘Environment’
Mark Tipple
While researching underwater camera housings for an upcoming project, I came across Mark Tipple’s work. He’s based in Sydney, and takes beautiful underwater photographs.
Take a look at his website for more of his images, work, and causes.
“Around 950 Long-finned Pilot Whales (Globicephala melaena) are killed annually, mainly during the summer. The hunts, called “grindadráp” in Faroese, are non-commercial and are organized on a community level; anyone can participate. The hunters first surround the pilot whales with a wide semicircle of boats. The boats then drive the pilot whales slowly into a bay or to the bottom of a fjord.”
After being driven to the point of being beached, the whales are pulled ashore with blunt gaffs, and “killed by cutting the dorsal area through to the spinal cord with a special whaling knife, a grindaknívur. Given the circumstances during a pilot whale hunt, the whaling knife is considered the safest and most effective equipment with which to kill the whales. The length it takes for a whale to die varies between a few seconds to a few minutes, with the average time being 30 seconds”
It’s extraordinary that such a progressive nation as Denmark, could be responsible for such irresponsible acts of slaughter. Learn more.
I avoid watching so much on this topic (oceanic destruction), because it makes me so utterly, and deeply sad… But this is really worth the time:
The bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) is the fastest fish in the sea, one of the largest fish in the ocean, and a marvel of creation. Astonishingly it is even warm blooded. This allows them to inhabit areas of the ocean that are very cold, including Newfoundland and Iceland, as well as the tropical waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean Sea, where they go each year to spawn.
Each year when the bluefin go ‘home’ to spawn in the Mediterranean, they are hunted en masse – Literally rounded up and slaughtered. The economics behind the hunt for bluefin tuna are extraordinary: In January 2011, a bluefin tuna was sold at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo for a record 32.49 million Yen (US$396,000).
Sea Shepherd are currently in the Mediterranean, attempting to block fishing of the near extinct tuna species. To read up on some bluefin facts, take a look at the societies fact page, or learn about why their protection is important.
Consider supporting their efforts this season here.
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